*Pre-meds, Interns and Residents,
you're welcome too

If you were to ask any medical student today why they wanted to become a doctor, a majority would undoubtedly say to “help people” and “save lives.” However, as we all know, medicine is a vast field. There is so much to learn before you can be considered even competent enough to be trusted alone in a room with an unstable patient. Nevertheless, the journey from a medical student to an astute clinician is all about taking initiatives and actively engaging. From my experiences of interacting with other medical students, I feel that we all could start off by becoming more familiar with emergent management. In other words, would we really know what to do if a patient were to drop dead right in front of us at this moment? If you are confidently nodding “yes,” I am happy for you (truly). But if you are a little on the fence like me, I invite you to revisit some of the things you have already learned and conceptualize their utility when you encounter a critical patient. Over the course of 10 articles, I will be going over some of the emergent interventions, procedures, and practices that can be used to help you better practice acute management and shine in your medical rotations. So, without further ado, let’s get started. 9. Bag Valve Mask (BVM)...

Ah, the holidays…it is that time of the year again when we all get to forget about our most dire priorities and embrace the primal side of human nature, following a course of excess consumption coupled with supreme relaxation. However, this time of festivity and enjoyment gives us a unique opportunity to reflect on our tendencies towards food and nutrition. However, rather than spending time on what to eat and what not to eat (which is being captured quite extensively by our most experienced nutritionists), let’s talk about some behavioral and very human factors that promote and prevent us from managing a balanced diet, which is the essence of proper health. Indulgence When the whole family sits at the big table for a huge and satisfying meal, your eyes glaze over all the delicacies in sight. From the mouth-watering honey-glazed ham to the scrumptious chicken breast, it is as though the food is calling to you from its innermost depths. However, no food attracts you more than the sweet desserts waiting on the kitchen counter, reserved for the end of the meal. The fatty chocolate mousse, smooth Italian gelato, silky orange jello, and much more. It has been a long time since you had a chance to take advantage of such a great assortment of sugary snacks. Surely you deserve this rare treat (let’s say “just...

Medical school is an experience that is hard to explain. But that’s not going to stop me from trying. 1. You’re still in high school. Congratulations, you made it into medical school. Prepare to enjoy spending time with the best and brightest from across the land, as you work together in a perfectly intelligent utopia. Just kidding, medical school is almost exactly like high school. There is gossip, jealousy, random and eventually non-random hook ups, clicks – the whole shebang. Medical students as a whole are an intelligent and successful social group, yet suffer from the same petty drama, frivolous competition and unrestrained biological urges that everyone else does. In fact, it can sometimes be worse as many applicants are chosen specifically for being statistical outliers; this includes the ridiculously smart, the surprisingly devout, the hopelessly idealistic, the needlessly assertive, and of course the socially inept. Enjoy as you navigate this weird social milieu while sleep deprived and stressed out, with the least patience you’ve ever had. 2. You have a job, but it’s not really a job. Your job for the most part at this stage is simply paying attention for a really long time. Clerkships, lectures, the cavalcade of material you are expected to memorize, this all requires you to simply be present a lot of the time. Your friends will be like, I worked sixty hours, and...

I can imagine that starting the first week of medical school is overwhelming. New place, new school, new people, new information, new everything. Many have already experienced similar feelings watching as their parents’ car pulled out of the college dorm parking lot; the only difference is you’re not an 18-year-old anymore so it might be slightly less acceptable to cry hysterically (I swear I didn’t do that). And, while it’s extremely important to get down to your studying, it’s also extremely important to get to know your new surroundings and meet new people. School will be stressful and you want to make sure you feel familiar and comfortable in your new home and with your new peers and mentors. Embrace your new place by…. Exploring the city. Take advantage of the last few weeks of summer and walk, run or bike outside. You’ll get good exercise and learn how to navigate around your new place. I recently moved into NYC, and spending hours walking my dog Charlie has really helped me learn my way around the BIG apple. Learning the history. A simple Google search of your new city and new school make you more connected to it. In your investigation, you might uncover some interesting facts to share with some of the other newbies. Getting involved. This can be done through groups at school or in your community....

As a med student, it can be difficult to fit dating into your busy schedule so you should take advantage of every opportunity. If you avoid these topics, there is less of a chance that you will completely screw it up… • What our kids would look like, hypothetically, if we were to have kids, no pressure or anything haha, just making conversation over here, but seriously why bother with this whole charade if we have incompatible genes that are destined to created hideous children with weak chins and foreheads large enough to mount flat-screens on?. • A brutally frank appraisal of what to expect from your naked body. • Goiters, and how you have become obsessed with them/have a set of textbook goiter pictures in your room somewhere. • How dating makes you hyper-aware of the way people instinctively inspect and evaluate each other based on their most superficial qualities, and how that makes you feel less like a person and more like a vestigial structure, and a rather problematic one at that, like maybe an appendix. • Oxycodone, the merits of. • How exciting it is that your date’s name is Gregor, because, for reasons you’d prefer not to get in to (and involve that time right after your genetics final, when you headed straight to the bar to drown your sorrows…), you already happen to have...

“I don’t have time to work out.” Have you said this before? Do you say this on a regular basis? If you answered “yes” or “ain’t nobody got time for that!” then please keep reading. I’d guess that most of us are “too busy” to (fill in the blank). Here’s the thing: if you want something badly enough, you’ll try to make it happen. Here are some tips to help squeeze in a little bit of fitness into your busy schedule. 1. Push-ups. These can be done practically anywhere and become easier to do with practice. I personally like to do about 10 push-ups as a pick-me-up if I’m struggling. Is 2:30 pm rolling around and you feel like you need a nap? Skip the gimmicky 5 hour stuff and do some push-ups. You’ll thank me later. 2. Planks and side planks. Great core work can be done anywhere. 3. Take the stairs. Yes, I know, you’ve heard this before. So do it! Not only is it terribly lazy to take an elevator up one or two measly flights (pet peeve, sorry), but it’s a waste of time. If you truly don’t have time to get to the gym, at least walk up a few flights of stairs. 4. Walk. Oooh, groundbreaking! Seriously, think of ways to increase your walking. In a new city? Walk instead of taking a...

I look over and see her fast asleep, her head hanging slightly off the chair. I slowly and softly walk over and slide a pillow under her neck and cover her with a blanket. I place my hand on hers, watching her chest rise and fall. She looks so peaceful, especially compared to the frazzled and angry woman who was with me just an hour prior. I wonder if she’s dreaming, and if so, what about. Is she seeing her late husband? Are they back in 1980, playing music together in a room full of people? Is she a little girl, running across the land on the farm that she grew up on? Is she holding one of her newborn babies, swelling with pride? I hope that her dreams are full of light and love and bliss; her waking moments have so much apathy, depression, and sometimes, anger. My grandmother was diagnosed with dementia and the early stages of Alzheimer’s last year. We saw the signs a long time prior though. It started with little things. She would call and say that she was pulled over to the side of the road because all of a sudden she didn’t know how to get to her nail salon, even though she had been going there for years. One day, she called me in a panic because she couldn’t find her car keys and couldn’t...